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Nonkilling Arts Research Committee Letter: Vol. 3, N. 3 (May-Jun 2019)Bimestrially sent from our site: Nonkilling.org. |
"Nonkilling art explores the spirit and practice of how to prevent, respond to, and to improve individual, social, and global well-being beyond killing." —Glenn D. Paige Dear NKARC members and friends,
You will be pleased to learn that two of our members received last month their Nonkilling paradigm based doctoral degrees in Finland and India. One of these deals with performing arts (singing/dancing duels) and conflict transformation, and the other explores the possibility of a Global Nonkilling world that includes a mention of literary fiction as a source of inspiration. For Links to these two dissertations see Item 4 below. The two doctoral theses serve as significant milestone on indicating the value of Nonkilling lens in academia. Kudos to colleagues Dr. Joam Evans Pim and Dr. Katyayani Singh.
Thank you all for your thoughtful contributions on Nonkilling poetry, cinema, documentary, music and dance, visual arts, nonkilling reflections, CGNK updates, and nonkilling journalism. As always, these eclectic and inspirational contributions awaken our passion to connect with life, delving into the essence of nonkilling, that is, our inherent desire to live. |
1. Nonkilling Poetry
The poem on Tienamen Square below is a tribute to nonviolent protestors everywhere who fearlessly stand up to oppression and injustice. There are other poems where you were moved by Christchurch mosque killings, these poetic notes are not about lament, but global expressions of unity of expansive love, empathy, and universal spirit. Thank you Maureen, Mony, Francisco, Anoop, Maria for your thoughtful voices. Tienamen Square, Beijing, June 1989 I saw his face that morning
live from Tienamen Square
one face
his fist
filled the television screen
“Take. Care. You.”
“Take. Care. You. Self.”
one voice punching
through lens, tape, satellite
13 hours difference in between.
here, there
all the world away
his voice, face, fist warning someone
behind the lens
“Take. Care. You. “
“Take. Care. You. Self.”
If I could, if I could do that. . .
. . . where are you. . .? What
happened next?
No word since. —Maureen Korp, Ottawa, Canada.
The Way of Love
“I don't know the answers.
But a higher mind does know. God - Allah - knows.
And in the stillness, I heard whispered: What is YOURS to do?
So, I reflected on that, what is mine to do?
I can't look into the heart, mind or soul of the man who did this, but I can
look into mine.
I can look at the hatred, anger and fear I have in my own heart. and do the
work of healing it.
I can look at MY judgments, MY intolerance, MY beliefs that keep me separate
from the so-called "other". and make peace with those.
I can do the work of putting together my own broken pieces.
And I can do this with the faith that, in lifting myself out of my own
darkness, I am also lifting out of that darkness the "other".
This is ALL within my power to do. In fact, it is the only thing within my
power to do: to choose what to think, how to act and what to believe.
And, today, I believe in the Way of Love - no matter how my mind protests
and demands justice and retribution.
The Way of Love challenges me to see the Divine Light in the person I want
to label "monster"; to know that the same Hand of Grace that created me also
created him. which means he is my brother. And he is on the same journey -
like each and every one of us - from dark to light, from ignorance to
understanding, from fear to love.
The Way of Love encourages me to make peace with my own demons, and find
peace in my own inner world, so that I can bring it to my outer world.
The Way of Love invites me to PUT Love at the throne of my heart, so that it
may guide my thoughts with Wisdom, and my steps (and deeds) with Compassion.
On the day I was invited to speak here, I was reading a poem that I deeply
treasure, which coincided with the UN International Day of Poetry. So I'll
take those as good omens to share this poem with you, written by the great
Sufi poet and philosopher Ibn Arabi:
'Before today, I abandoned my friend, if my religion did not side with his.
Now, my heart embraces every design:
The pasture for gazelles, and convent for nuns,
The temple for idols, and Kaaba for pilgrims,
The tablets of the Torah, and Book of the Quran.
For it is the religion of Love that I now follow,
wherever its caravan may wander.
For Love is my religion and my faith."
—Mony Dojeiji, Ottawa, Canada
The New Zealand tragedy and the World History of Worshipping
In the World History of Worshipping
the New Zealand tragedy will stand out
as a life-sacrificing example of how a religious belief to carry out
Even when against worshippers' existence killings are perpetrated
and the sublime right to spirituality
is brutally violated
The World History of Worshipping has
turned a bitter page
and it has strengthened our global pledge
to help Humankind launch and sustain a NONKILLING AGE!
—Francisco Gomes de Matos, Recife, Brazil
Not a poem but a prayer...
Not a poem but a prayer, in this hour of despair,
When even the places of worship are not spared:
Reminding us of the humanity around in despair,
Growing tired of small talks and words to solace;
When do we shift of the violent and killing track,
Of terror, inhumanity, massacres and the carnage;
From the ashes of our unholy past let us arise stop not,
Let us walk on a path of hope and be enlightened;
Not an imagination but only the eternal human reality,
Where love, compassion and human dignity prevail;
Beginning today no utopia but this world, our world,
Forever to a nonviolent and nonkilling peaceful world.
—Anoop Swarup, Bhopal, India and Melbourne, Australia |
2. Nonkilling Cinema
Under the Tree, a 2018 film from Iceland by Gunnar Sigurdsson:
Cath Clarke in her review of this film in The Guardian writes: "The film’s director, Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson, has said his inspiration for ‘Under the Tree’ was Iceland’s high rate of “neighbour rage”: over-the-fence feuds between ordinary respectable people. Blame the Viking DNA. He skilfully constructs his film as part-thriller, part-intelligent relationship drama, topped with a juicy dollop of savage black comedy." { Full review with a short trailer }
Roma: In my introduction to film ROMA in the last Letter, I mentioned about a short story, ‘The Last Tiger’ where the hunter has to kill his prey, and I spoke about how change of the ending from killing of the tiger to its non-killing, changed the focus of the story. NKARC friend Patrick Gallivan from Ireland commented: "Your reference to the Last Tiger reminded me of the hunter who in real life had killed a tiger, and when he met Sathya Sai he was told to return to rescue the cubs that were without their mother and take them to the safety of a zoo. The incident changed the hunter's thinking regards to hunting/killing. I hope your articles on Nonkilling help to change people's thinking towards the sad world as it is today." Thanks, Patrick. |
3. Nonkilling Documentary
Anthropocene: The Human Epoch is a 2018 documentary film, the third film in a series of collaborations between filmmakers Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier with photographer Edward Burtynsky, (following Manufactured Landscapes and Watermark) The film explores the emerging concept of a geological epoch called the Anthropocene, defined by the impact of humanity on natural development.
Pat Mullen in her review writes: "Matters of scale are the focus of Anthropocene as the film examines the life that humans drain from the planet as they pillage its resources with unrestrained fury. The gist of the era of the Anthropocene is that contemporary civilization entered a new period with the escalation of human industry, land development, and resource extraction that significantly altered the natural harmony of the Earth’s ecosystem. The Anthropocene is, visually, the natural extension of the polluted and unnatural corners of the globe captured in Manufactured Landscapes. 12 years later, it’s clear that the rate of activity isn’t slowing down. It’s ramping up, and Anthropocene urgently uses the visual power of cinema to remind audiences that the Earth’s beauty isn’t theirs for the taking. "
Unlike Nonkilling’s focus which is usually on deliberate act of killings, raises the question why such deliberate human abuse of our natural environment be not regarded as violent action, and the urgent need of social interventions to reverse the rate of nature’s destruction. { Full review and trailer } |
4. Nonkilling Research
Congratulations to NKARC colleagues Katyayani Singh and Joám Evans Pim for their extraordinary research accomplishments becoming the first two doctoral disputations from India and Finland using Nonkilling lens on global conflicts.
• Dr. Singh’s thesis is entitled, Nonkilling and Global Peace: A Study of Emerging Paradigms and Prospects. The thesis is built from the initial research question “Is a nonkilling society possible?” that Prof. Paige had also raised in his seminal book Nonkilling Global Political Science. Dr. Singh’s thesis takes this question further through the study of political leadership and by eliciting public opinion from different parts of the world regards to killing and nonkilling; it also develops a global nonkilling index to measure the rate of killings around the world and reflect those areas of the world where human life is threatened the most. Links to Singh’s doctoral thesis:
• https://nonkilling.org/center/2019/01/24/thesis-on-nonkilling-as-an-emerging-paradigm-defended-at-jagran-lakecity-university-india/
• http://14.139.13.47:8080/jspui/handle/10603/230348
• Dr. Evans Pim’s thesis entitled Verbal and Non-verbal Communication as Evolutionary Restraint Mechanisms for Nonkilling Conflict Management grounded in ethnography and anthropology, is about application of music (song dueling) from folk to modern hip hop and rap in peaceful transformation of conflicts. The dissertation uses a nonkilling approach to explore mechanisms for rule-based ritualized restraint such as song duel display contests or mark-making practices related to territory in different parts of the world. Links to the Evan Pims’ report and thesis:
• https://nonkilling.org/center/2019/03/17/doctoral-thesis-on-nonkilling-restraint-mechanisms-defended-in-abo-akademi-university/
• http://www.doria.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/167850/evans_pim_joam.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
This reminds me of a recent poetic rendering, ‘Dance for peace’ from colleague Francisco Gomes de Matos:
On dancing for Peace
How can dance global peace enhance?
By creatively showing how motions and steps can express types of serenity
and contribute to deepening many
ordinary acts of Humanity.
May dancing for Peace become an educational tradition never to cease
May peaceful dancing also be
spiritually advancing
—Francisco Gomes de Matos, Recife, Brazil
Again, congratulations Drs. Katyayani and Joám on your pioneering research. We hope to see your theses transformed into popular books! |
5. Visual Arts and Nonkilling
Lodhi colony wall art
The Lodhi colony, a suburb of New-Delhi India, has a two month long festival of street art with huge 3 storey high murals by 25 street artists from India and across the world. This is with a view to make art accessible to a wider audience. Lodhi colony is a district of Delhi full of government quarters for the central government employees, I grew up in that neighbourhood. The high colourful murals involve both modern and traditional aspects of life and culture. { Images and articles } |
6. Nonkilling Reflections
Enclosed below are three insightful notes from NKARC colleagues:
(i) Gandhian Professor S. Jeyapragasam - A Great Tree: Tribute
Paul Schwartzenruber from Halifax, Canada, writes: “I count it one of the great blessings of my life that I encountered and then came to know—even though in my later years—Dr. S. Jeyapragasam. I imagine him still, as I first met him on that late afternoon in the haze and heat of Madurai, sitting on a white plastic chair, in a neatly pressed white, short-sleeved shirt and lungi, his shirt pocket sagging with pens, his legs crossed under him and his bare feet dangling. He is smiling so broadly and warmly that his eyes are almost squeezed shut. Behind him, on the white board is sketched out a complex diagram of arrows and words, both Tamil and English. ‘I am trying to identify all the elements of a holistic view of nonviolence’, he explains to me quietly, his face still beaming from the excitement of what he appears to be in the process of just now discovering. ‘What do you think’, he asks me in a soft voice, ‘What is still missing’? And I know immediately, that I have found a kindred spirit, across a great cultural divide, who is reaching out in friendship...”
(ii) Women Leadership and Nonkilling Perception of Politics
Rashida Khanam from Chittagong, Bangladesh writes: “Society and the world had and have been deprived from the inherent Nonkilling potentialities of women due to the polarised philosophy of the time immemorial past. To Aristotle, women lack wisdom, they cannot organize their lives. Therefore, they are subordinate to men. As a result, women were deprived from education, citizenship- the basic human rights. But to Plato , women with leadership qualities must be placed in the highest echelon of decision -making power. Rousseau said, women are inferior to men. Marry Wollstonecraft dissuaded him saying, "you give me the equal opportunities, I will show you the differences". But society followed the discriminating views of Aristotle and the women- half of the population, were deprived from education, the fundamental right of human being, for more than centuries. And today's killing politics throughout the world is the result of the deprivation of women of nonkilling excellence...”
(iii) Sophistry, Flattery and Trump’s ‘Make America Great Again’ slogan
Clay Edwards sent the following from San Diego, California on US President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign slogan. He writes: “To measure the size of things in greatness or ungreatness is to wrap our lives in flattery in the idea that we can make things pleasant without accounting for the things themselves. I look at Vice President Pence's pictures (in response) one by one and ask whether they are being used to make killing war pleasant (Washington crossing the Delaware or Marines fighting and dying and killing to plant a flag on the top of foreign territory)? Do we make things pleasant by demonstrating that a group of people called Americans got to the moon first before Russians or Chinese or Martin Luther King being lionized for speaking out persuasively to a crowd of Americans making himself a target to be shot and killed on a balcony? ..." |
8. Nonkilling Journalism
(i) RE-INHABITING PLANET EARTH by Robert C. Koehler
Koehler writes: "The first premise for navigating the Anthropocene may be this: We’re all in it together. Simple as this sounds, the implications of such a statement, if it is true, begin mushrooming into unfathomable complexity, especially when “all” refers not simply to all 7.4 billion human beings out there but all of life: the biosphere, the planet. We have to rethink who we are in a way that has, quite likely, never before happened. “In the Anthropocene the old simplicities are gone,” writes Mark Garavan
(ii) “DON'T PLAY POLITICS WITH OUR PEACE” by Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire
Maguire writes: “My generation has a responsibility to not restrain the youth by our bigotry and division. It is my hope that in the future we will have non-sectarian elections in a Parliament of left, right and center. Nevertheless, until that day occurs, I believe it is up to the older generation to ensure our elected government is representing us by insisting on the participation and cooperation of elected representatives. It is time to put aside egos, individual and collective, for the sake of the youth.“
(iii) NEW ZEALAND PM JACINDA ARDERN’S “WE ARE ONE. THEY ARE US” SPEECH on NZ’s Mosque carnage, 19 March 2019.
Ms. Ardern spoke: “On Friday, it will be a week since the attack. Members of the Muslim community will gather for worship on that day. Let us acknowledge their grief as they do. Let’s support them as they gather again for worship. We are one. They are us. Tātou, tātou. Al salam Alaikum. Weh Rahmat Allah. Weh Barakaatuh.”
(iv) MARIANNE WILLIAMSON: CHALLENGING THE STATUS QUO IN 2020 by Robert C. Koehler
As 2020 Presidential race has begun, long-time US American peace activist and author Marianne Williamson has added her name to the list of the Democratic Party nominees for the USA 2020 presidential campaign. Journalist Koehler quotes Williamson in his article about Williamson who states: “There is a groundswell of Americans seeking higher wisdom, in politics as well as everywhere else. . . My campaign for the presidency is dedicated to this search, for wisdom of the heart has been absent from the political sphere for far too long. Together we can reclaim both our democratic principles and the angels of our better selves, expressed not only in our personal lives but in acts of citizenship as well. Politics should not be a pursuit disconnected from the heart; it should be, as everything should be, an expression of the heart. Where fear has been harnessed for political purposes, let’s now harness the power of love.” |
Last WordPEACE : THE priority
A plea by Francisco Gomes de Matos
PEACE is not just a priority
PEACE is THE priority
The wisest choice for Humanity
PEACE above all
should be the global dignicall
When potential conflicts threaten PEACE
our commitment to nonviolence/nonkilling shouldn't cease
When PEACE most prominently we place
All kinds of( inter)national problems we are ready to face
May this a plea for the PRIORITY of PEACE
May all global citizens' peacebuilding efforts never cease
Recently NKARC colleague Les Sponsel wrote that if we humans were killers by nature, the whole human race would have been extinct long ago. It is because we exist is a proof of our intense longing to live and love. A poem along similar thinking below:
DAWN OF HOPE
The light of dawn
erases the traces of the night.
Relentlessly, time goes on flowing,
although I wish it would stop
like a picture fixed by the camera’s lens
because as valuable like fruit in a tree is love.
Like the moon ascending at night,
so you are, my love.
Whatever happens, wherever you are,
I keep you in my heart.
Since I am in love with you, my world has changed
for two hearts found a home of tenderness.
Sunrays play on the strings of love
lighting up the dawn of hope.
—Anna Keiko, CHINA
(Translation Anna Keiko - Germain Droogenbroodt – Stanley Barkan, Pointe Editions.)
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My deep gratitude to all who contributed and pointed to the material for
the Letter. Looking forward to your inspirations and comments as always. Nonkillling regards,
Bill
Bill (Balwant) Bhaneja
Coordinator
NonKilling Arts Research Committee (NKARC)
Center for Global Nonkilling (CGNK)
www.nonkilling.org
"Nonkilling Culture crosses all the lines." —Glenn D. Paige
Nonkilling is THE measure of Human progress
[THIS IS AN INTERNAL NEWSLETTER OF THE NKARC. COPYRIGHT FOR ALL MATERIAL IN THE NEWSLETTER REMAINS PROPERTY OF THE SOURCES/WRITERS/ART CREATORS.]
{ For back issues of NKARC Letter, see Nonkilling Arts page of CGNK site } |
Stay in contact also on Social Networks
• Please feel free to contact NKARC Letter's coordinator at billbhaneja@nonkilling.org.
• You can also follow the Center for Global Nonkilling at these social networks:
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